2026

Excerpt in Slate, Ballad of Big Nothing: When Elliott Smith was nominated for an Oscar, it changed everything—and not necessarily for the better Excerpt in LitHub, What It Means to Love Elliott Smith

2023

“The High-Risk Feat of Bringing ‘American Born Chinese’ to TV.” New York Times Magazine: 30 May 2023. “The Lingering Beauty of Elliott Smith.” New Yorker: 30 March 2023.

2022

“The Varieties of Chinese Repression.” New York Times Book Review: 27 Feb. 2022

2021

“Iconic Choreographer Twyla Tharp Returns to Her Roots at City Center.” Profile of Twyla Tharp. Playbill: 11 Nov. 2021.  “Stop Spreading the News: The Case for a New York Without Tourists.” New York Times Magazine: 3 Oct. 2021.  “Stuck with a Sick Parent in Hospital Hell: Rev. of Faraway: New York Times Book Review: 7 Sept. 2021.  “The Mystery of My Obsession with Agatha Christie.” New York Times Magazine: 1 Aug. 2021. “How a Herd of Elephants Won China’s Internet.” New York Times Magazine: 27 June 2021. “The Composer at the Frontier of Movie Music: Nicholas Britell’s scores — for “Succession,” “Moonlight” and “The Underground Railroad,” among others — suggest whole new ways of writing for film and television.” New York Times Magazine: 9 May 2021. “The Age of Peak Advice.” NewYorker.com: 18 Feb. 2021.

2020

“In Shaping Her Own Story, She Upends a National Epic”: Rev. of China Iron: New York Times Book Review: 22 Nov. 2020: 15.  “Plunged into Reverence”: Rev. of Thin Places: Times Literary Supplement: 13 Nov. 2020: 38.  “Mulishly Unseasonal”: Times Literary Supplement: 26 June 2020 with bonus editor’s note endorsing summer crime! translation work for “Her Parents Were Model Citizens. It Didn’t Matter.”: New York Times Magazine: 29 Jan. 2020.

2019

“Welfare Royalty”: Rev. of The Queen: Times Literary Supplement: 15 Nov. 2019 “A Romantic Comedy So Dark It Makes You Cry”: Rev. of Divide Me By Zero: New York Times Book Review: 21 October 2019: 10. “The Cycle”: Rev. of Ladies Who Punch: Times Literary Supplement: 23 Aug. 2019 “Three Novels Take Readers Deep Inside the Writer’s Life”: Rev. of Friend of My Youth, Lord, and One Another: New York Times Book Review: 24 March 2019: 26.

2018

“A Dystopian Thriller from Joyce Carol Oates”: Rev. of Hazards of Time Travel. New York Times Book Review: 23 December 2018: 16.  “Fact-Check of a ‘Lifespan'”: Rev. of “Lifespan of a Fact”. New York Times, 3 Dec. 2018 “Natasha Ginzburg’s Family.” Tin House, Fall 2018.  “Making a Mess”: Rev. of The Trauma Cleaner, The Life of Stuff. The Times Literary Supplement: 8 August 2018. Rev. of Half Gods: The New Yorker: June 25 2018. “Reliably Unreliable Men, Unlikely to Improve Their Lot”: Rev. of Good Trouble. New York Times Book Review: 24 June 2018: 18. 

“Gerald Murnane’s relentlessly introspective vision'”: Rev. of Border Districts. Washington Post Book World: 28 March 2018.

“The Left-Handed Kid.” Rev. of The Chinese Typewriter. The London Review of Books: 8 March 2018: 21. “Denis Johnson’s Broken Heroes”: Rev. of The Largesse of the Sea Maiden. The Times Literary Supplement: 6 March 2018. “Savages”: Rev. of Educated: The Times Literary Supplement: 10 April 2018. “The Sigh of the Tiger”: Rev. of Little Soldiers: The Times Literary Supplement: 28 Feb. 2018. “Sophisticated Boom-Boom”: Rev. of The Vanity Fair Diaries. The Times Literary Supplement: 20 Feb. 2018. “In the Brutality of the Chinese Countryside, ‘Mythorealism’ Reigns.” Rev. of The Years, Months, Days. New York Times Book Review: 26 Jan. 2018: 21.

2017

Trans. “Raise the red pen”: Harper’s Magazine: Dec. 2017: 12 “Pinch of parts”: Rev. of Logical Family:  The Times Literary Supplement: 28 Nov. 2017. Rev. of Smile:  The New Yorker: 27 Nov. 2017. Rev. of The World to Come:  The Times Literary Supplement: 24 Nov. 2017. “Why pick fights?”: Rev. of Making It and The Draw:  The Times Literary Supplement: 26 Sept. 2017. Rev. of The Stranger in the Woods:  The New Yorker: 11 Sept. 2017. “The Tale of a Mother, a Song, and a Phone”: rev. of To Siri with Love: Washington Post Book World: 21 Aug. 2017. “Letter of Recommendation: Memewear”: The New York Times Magazine: 17 Aug. 2017. (appears in print 20 Aug. 2017, on page MM22 ) Rev. of Flesh and Blood and Bone:  The New Yorker: 31 July 2017. “Flags in Still Air”: Rev. of Notes from No Man’s Land:  The Times Literary Supplement: 4 July. 2017. “Plucky digressions”: Rev. of The Purple Swamp Hen & Other Stories: BOMB: 26 June 2017 “Return of the Pirate Slut”: Rev. of Love & Trouble: Los Angeles Review of Books: 19 June 2017 “Weike Wang’s ‘Chemistry’ charts a young woman’s toxic reaction to stress”: Rev. of Chemistry: Washington Post Book World: 9 June 2017 “Looking forward to the harem.” n+1: 19 May 2017. “Peter Struck’s Odyssey.” The Pennsylvania Gazette: 24 April 2017. Rev. of Somebody with a Little Hammer:  The New Yorker: 24 April 2017. “Nerd pyrotechnics”: Rev. of Word by Word:  The Times Literary Supplement: 19 Apr. 2017. Rev. of Idaho:  The New Yorker: 3 April 2017. “Starved until their eyes turned black”: Rev. of No Wall Too High: The Times Literary Supplement: 24 March 2017 “Ariel Levy’s sobering conclusion for women: ‘We can’t have it all'”: Rev. of The Rules Do Not Apply. Washington Post Book World: 14 March 2017 “Rachel Cusk is returning fiction to its roots in storytelling”: Rev. of Transit. Washington Post Book World: 16 Jan. 2017 Rev. of The Gardens of Consolation:  The New Yorker: 9 Jan 9 2017.

2016

“An artistic Who’s Who of who slept with whom”: Rev. of The Art of the Affair. Washington Post Book World: 15 Dec. 2016 Rev. of A Floating Chinaman:  The Times Literary Supplement: 1 Dec. 2016. “Beryl Bainbridge: The writer who used tragedy as an entry point into farce”: Rev. of Beryl Bainbridge: Love by All Sorts of Means. Washington Post Book World: 9 Nov. 2016. Rev. of Valiant Gentlemen. VICE: 1 Nov. 2016. Rev. of The Nix: The New Yorker: 24 Oct. 2016. Rev. of The Heavenly Table. The New Yorker: 19 Sept. 2016. Rev. of The Bones of Grace. The New Yorker: 5 Sept. 2016. “You Don’t Know Jack (Kerouac).” The Pennsylvania Gazette: 25 Aug. 2016. Rev. of Hot Milk. Washington Post Book World: 13 July 2016. “A Fond Look Back at the International Jet Set in Old Shanghai”: Rev. of Shanghai Grand. New York Times Book Review: 24 July 2016: 16. “Peonies.” Subtropics: Spring/Summer 2016. Rev. of Mothering Sunday. The New Yorker: 27 June 2016: 71. Rev. of Peacekeeping. VICE: May 2016: 103. Rev. of Behave. New York Times Book Review: 21 April 2016: 11. Rev. of The Lost Time Accidents. The New Yorker: 28 March 2016: 79. Rev. of The Past. The New Yorker: 7 March 2016: 69. “The Solution is a Gay Socialist Utopia Built for Two.” Rev. of Beijing Comrades. The Millions: 30 March 2016: Web. “The Small, Good Stories,” The Pennsylvania Gazette: March 2016: 30-36. “Gushing and Gleeking”: Rev. of Year of the Goose. L.A. Review of Books: 16 Feb. 2016: Web. Rev. of Under the Udala Trees. The New Yorker: 4 Jan. 2016: 73

2015

Rev. of Everland. The New Yorker: 12 Oct. 2015: 105 Trans. “Mao’s Little Facebook.” Harper’s Magazine: Sept. 2015: 12. “Politics and Poetry in Kashmir,” The Pennsylvania Gazette: 27 Aug. 2015: Web. “A Patron Saint for Sadsacks: What Snark Says About Failure — and What Literature Says Back.” L.A. Review of Books: June 2015: Web. “High Style and Desperate Love: On the Life and Work of Eileen Chang.” The Millions: May 2015: Web. “Drag Princess.” Rev. of Manchu Princess, Japanese Spy. New York Times Book Review: 3 May 2015: 18. Rev. of Preparation for the Next Life. Cleaver Magazine: March 2015: Web. Rev. of The Unspeakable: and Other Subjects of Discussion. Cleaver Magazine: Feb. 2015: Web.

2014

Rev. of The Use of Man. Cleaver Magazine: Dec. 2014: Web. Rev. of Orphans. Cleaver Magazine: Nov. 2014: Web. Rev. of The Woman Who Borrowed Memories. Cleaver Magazine: Oct. 2014: Web. Rev. of My Life as a Foreign Country. Cleaver Magazine:  Oct. 2014: Web. Rev. of The Search for Heinrich Schögel. Cleaver Magazine: Sept. 2014: Web.